Friday, 29 July 2011

Hardware stores and garden centres are dangerous places for me. I rarely get out of them without having spent a small fortune. Plants are the most leathal sections for me.

Today I had to go down to get some dowel so I could put together a mobile for baby J's room, plus some other bits and pieces for that project. And I wound up with some veggie seedlings in the mix. But at about a $20 spend, it's one of the cheapest trips I've ever had.

Not bad since I've been known to drop $200 on a single plant in the past (thankfully it's still alive!!).

Tuesday, 26 July 2011

I took baby J to playgroup today. I enjoy playgroup - it's an hour and a half of entertainment each week I don't have to think of. And there are a lot of cool toys (my opinion, not baby J's!!). It was the first day of term, and there was a mum with her 9 month old boy O there for the first time (it was our second visit).

It's the first time I've seen two youngsters take a shine to each other. O kept crawling to J, J was attempting to roll in his direction. Awwww. My baby has his first little friend.

This followed Mr Trifectagirl taking J to the doctors this morning after we noticed that he has a turned-in eye. The doctor was quite concerned, and advised to get it looked at quickly, so we hope we'll have a specialist appointment next week.

Although concerning, my parents went through the same thing with me. My turned in eye was corrected by surgery when I was two. Hopefully we've caught it early enough so that we don't have to deal with surgery.

Friday, 8 July 2011

First, we've had an ongoing problem with our fridge. The door just wouldn't stay shut, was it was working overtime to keep cool and as a result, freezing everything at the back.

Our first solution was to put on a baby lock, This worked for some 6-7 months. It was the first baby-safety product we bought. But in the last couple of weeks, this has started to be ineffective.

So today we finally got a fridge-guy out to figure out the problem.

He did.

Quickly.

The old set up:

And he did this:

Yes, he shifted a tub to the middle so it didn't jam against the drinks holder in the door. And charged $77 for the privelidge. Mr Trifectagirl and I feel pretty stupid that we didn't figure this out in about 12 months!!

Then my day got better.

We menu-plan in our house. It means we know what we're having and the grocery shopping list and expense is kept under control. Tonight is a soup with Chorizo sausage, fennel, carrot, chickpeas and celary. I've made it before and it's lovely.

We have a friend who regularly gives us veggies out of his garden, and the last bundle included a fennel and a rather large carrot. Bonus, I think, I can use these in the soup (actually, the menu was planned knowing these were in the fridge). Now, this rather large carrot happend to be a purple variety.

Little did I know, purple carrots bleed. A lot. A bit like fresh beetroot. My bright, colourful soup now looks quite interesing. The stock is purple, the veggies and chickpeas are a purple-grey colour.

Tuesday, 5 July 2011

I just realized I haven't done a wrap of Mr Trifectagirl and I's honeymoon last week. It was lovely. We managed fantastic weather, although one day was particularly cool and the fog rolled in really early.

Mr Trifectagirl used his relationship-building skills to score us an upgrade to a suite at our hotel. I was embarassed, but pleased with the result. The staff were fantastic with everything, including sterilizing J's bottles each day for us! Mr Trifectagirl has sent very positive feedback on our experience and stay to the international office.

We learned that prams do not go onto Melbourne trams particularly easily. Which was a pain.

We did a walking tour of Melbourne's "The Golden Mile" and learned so much about the city - it was really worth doing. We had the opportunity to catch up with an old friend who moved to Melbourne some 8 years ago, albeit briefly.

The main aim of the trip was to go to the "Tutenkahmun and the Golden Age of the Pharohs" exhibition. And unfortunately we were disappointed. I'm glad I went, but an exhibition a number of years ago at the Art Gallery of South Australia which from memory was much better. This exhibition was speccy, but the Adelaide one seemed to be more comprehensive on recolection. The highlight is actually the teddy bear I bought for J - dressed as King Tut, and named "Tutty Bear". It falls into the clasification of 'so bad, it's good'.

The highlights of the trip had to be the flights there and back. J flew really, really well. Especially since he cut his first and second teeth on the respective flights! J's first tooth at 4.5 months.

Grandpa and Auntie J have been away for about a month, and they arived home today. They were amazed at how much J has changed in that time. They've been in Scandinavia, and bought J home a beanie with a troll and 'Norge' written on it. J's now being called Norge (rhymes with George) by Mr Trifectagirl.

After visiting Grandpa and Auntie J, Mr Trifectagirl and I took J to baby playgroup for the first time today. Mr Trifectagirl spent most of the time on his phone, while I was down on the floor playing with J and the other babies. There were lots of toys for a little boy to play with, and he seemed very popular with the ladies (young AND old!!).

There was a group story, and songs and then we headed home. It was enough to plum tucker out a baby boy, so he had a nice long nap when we got home.

Friday, 1 July 2011

After my employment contract concluded conveniently at about the time I wanted to start maternity leave, I went back to work today. Yes, a Friday.

One of my (former) colleagues is going through a rough patch personally with an unwell teenaged daughter, and there is a rather large backlog of paperwork that needs to be completed for a project. This is something that I have done a few times before, so I got a call a couple of weeks ago to see if I could do some temping. Yep, I'm happy to head back to work now, and it is stuff I can do from home if I want to.

This week Mr Trifectagirl and I were on our honeymoon, and we got home last night. Mid-honeymoon I received a text asking how soon I could be in, which was today.

I have the ability to work part-time at my own flexibility, which is fantastic. Monday is MIL's birthday, so I'll only go in for the afternoon.

I love my little boy, but it was fantastic going back to work. I guess I need to contribute/earn through paid employment as part of who I am.

About Me

These are my adventures while working on the trifecta - a great home, great relationships and a great job. I'm a 39 year old mum to a toddler after my partner and I faced male-factor infertility and subsequent IVF cycles. Following a major medical crisis, my husband passed 375 days after our June 2011 wedding and I'm now a widow juggling the everyday demands of a toddler and life.